1. Field
The invention relates to dispensing apparatus for medications, such as pills and vitamins, or for other items to be either consumed or used at set intervals.
2. State of the Art
Various devices have been developed heretofore for automatically dispensing pills at pre-established intervals in accordance with schedules prescribed by physicians and for alerting the user to various conditions of operation, see particularly U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,360,125, 4,381,059, 4,473,884, and 4,504,153. Yet, there has remained a need for more versatility and use of standard commercially available parts in machines of this type.
In the copending application of Forrest D. Stone, Ser. No. 831,810 filed Feb. 21, 1986 entitled "Electronically Controlled Programmable Dispenser for Medications", there is disclosed a versatile machine capable of being programmed to automatically dispense required dosages of medications, such as various kinds of pills, capsules, and the like, sequentially at selectively timed intervals over an extended period of time, e.g. a week.
We have now gone farther in developing a simpler machine that is more economical to manufature and more convenient to use, but which utilizes the novel combination of electrical stepper motor means and programmable control system therefor as part of the general type of dispensing apparatus concerned, which combination was due to our joint efforts but was first incorporated in the machine construction that was developed solely by the present joint inventor, Forrest D. Stone, and is disclosed in his aforesaid copending sole application Ser. No. 831,810.